Nick Clegg has said he feels “lobotomised” by working in government, with the
“frenetic” pace of politics leaving him with no time to think.

The Deputy Prime Minister said he felt he was “sort of gradually lobotomised” by the work of government, and the “sheer neurosis and weight of everyday activity”.

Speaking at a reception at liberal thinktank Centre Forum, he argued it was time to “think big” by coming up with new policies.

Admitting getting into Government meant “you stop thinking a bit, you stop looking into the middle horizon,” Mr Clegg said he had discovered the pitfalls of the role “like so many generations of politicians before me”.

He said: “One of the things that happens when you go into government is you are sort of gradually lobotomised by the sheer neurosis and weight of everyday government activity.”

BBC journalist Andrew Neil reported that his words caused senior Liberal Democrat Lord David Steel to have “rolled his eyes”.

&lt;noframe&gt;Twitter: Andrew Neil - &lt;a href="http://www.twitter.com/TimMontgomerie" target="_blank"&gt;@TimMontgomerie&lt;/a&gt; I was standing beside David Steel when he said it. David rolled his eyes.&lt;/noframe&gt;

John Spellar, Labour MP for Warley, told the Daily Mail: “A lobotomy is supposed to reduce feelings of inadequacy. It clearly hasn’t worked in Nick Clegg’s case. He is still as inadequate and out of his depth as he has always been.”

Gerry Sutcliffe, MP for Bradford South, added: “The country has clearly known for a long time. It is good that he has finally admitted it.”

Mr Clegg told an audience at Centre Forum: “I say this with feeling, as a politician who has discovered, like so many generations of politicians before me and no doubt after me, that one of the things that happens when you go into government is you are sort of gradually lobotomised by the sheer neurosis and weight of everyday government activity,.

“You stop thinking a bit, you stop looking into the middle horizon. Instead, your nose is pressed up against the windowpane of everyday frenetic activity. But if there ever was a time that we need to think big, it is now.”